I've about had it with the "One" naming convention sweeping the tech world. No, sorry: Your device is not the One. With that out of the way, let's get to the Acer Iconia One 7. The $129 (8GB) slate joins the ranks of affordable and passable, but utterly uninventive Android tablets like the Dell Venue 7 and Toshiba Excite 7. The One 7 looks and feels like a tablet from two years ago, and it's inundated with useless bloatware, a lot of which cannot be removed. It'll suffice for light Web browsing or media consumption, but the Hisense Sero 7 Pro offers better battery life and an HDMI out port for the same price. If you can afford to spend more, the Google Nexus 7 is still our Editors' Choice for small-screen tablets, outperforming all of the aforementioned devices by leaps and bounds.

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Design and FeaturesThe plastic back features a textured pattern and comes in a variety of playful colors. But otherwise, the One 7 doesn't deviate much from the cheap Android tablet script. At 7.8 by 4.7 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 11.29 ounces, the One 7 is thoroughly average. There's a micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack on top, while the Volume and Power buttons, as well as an exposed microSD card slot, occupy the right edge.

The 7-inch, 1,280-by-800-pixel TFT LCD is pretty average as well. It gets reasonably bright and viewing angle is sufficient, but everything just looks dull. Poor contrast and color depth are the culprits here, and you'll get a better viewing experience with the Sero 7 Pro or Asus Memo Pad HD 7. There are two small speaker ports on the back, which sound predictably anemic.

This is a Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks on the 2.4GHz band only. There's Bluetooth 3.0, but no GPS or NFC. There are two storage options, a $129 8GB model and a $139 16GB model.

In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with screen brightness set to max and Wi-Fi on, the One 7 lasted 6 hours, 11 minutes. The Sero 7 Pro lasted for 9 hours, 17 minutes in the same test.

Performance and AndroidThe One 7 uses a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor with 1GB RAM, which is essentially the same chip in the Venue 7, but with half the RAM. It's an x86 part, but still only performs on par with the ARM-based SoC's typically used in low-end Android tablets. Benchmarks really only tell part of the story, which is especially true of Intel based Android tablets. Here's what you need to know: Everything moves along at a reasonably smooth clip, gaming performance is good enough for casual gaming, and Web browsing is mostly responsive. There are still plenty of moments of lag and hangups, though, but that's pretty much the case with all low-end Android devices.

Thankfully, there's not much in the way of system-wide customization from Acer, but the One 7 is still stuck on Android 4.2.2 out of the box. Acer says it will be upgradable to Android 4.4, but that's a bit vague and I'm not sure I'd count on a timely update for a low-end device like this one.

Our 16GB model came with 10.8GB available to users. In a move likely related to cost-saving measures, the One 7 comes jam packed with pre-loaded software—21 total apps, to be exact. These range from useful apps like Evernote and OfficeSuite to completely inane apps like iStoryTime and Wild Tangent Games. Some of these are removable, like eBay or Hulu+, but apps like the aforementioned Wild Tangent and Booking.com are not. Acer also pre-loaded McAfee Security, which I can see being useful for some, but I found the constant reminders to activate service pretty annoying.

Cameras and ConclusionsYes, this thing has two cameras, and no, you don't want to use them. There's a rear-facing, 2-megapixel camera and a 1-megapixel, front-facing camera. They remind me of the camera on my first flip-phone back in 2008—grainy and indistinct shots abound, and forget accurate exposure or white balance. The rear-facing camera is capable of 720p video, but it doesn't look great, either.

There's no glaring flaw with the Acer Iconia One 7, and many of its shortcomings can be forgiven considering the low price. Still, the low-end Android market is as competitive as ever, and better, equally affordable options are in abundant supply. The Hisense Sero 7 Pro matches the One 7's price, but offers a better display, longer battery life, and HDMI out for mirroring media content on the big screen. The Nexus 7 is better still, but the $100 price gulf is substantial, especially in this price tier.

Before joining the consumer electronics team at PCMag, Eugene worked at local news station NY1 doing everything from camera work to writing scripts. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and graduated from the University...

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